Due to the emphasis numerous national, state, and local organizations have placed on the promotion of lifetime physical activity in our school physical education programs, it is imperative that researchers continue to examine how lifetime physical activities are being taught in schools, and what teachers specifically think about their confidence towards instruction of these activities. As a result, a valid measure is needed to assess how teachers perceive their abilities to teach lifetime physical activities. To address the gap in the research, a new scale with strong evidence for validity and reliability is needed.
The purpose of this study was to develop and begin the validation process of an instrument that measures efficacy perceptions of physical educators towards teaching lifetime physical activities. This instrument, the Physical Educator Efficacy Scale for Teaching Lifetime Physical Activities (PEES-LPA), was constructed and developed through expert review, and pilot procedures, and exploratory factor analysis.
Method:
This study was conducted in four different phases. The first phase was a literature review that involved both inductive and deductive item generation. The second phase was the prepilot review, which consisted of focus group (N=6) and expert review (N=6) feedback. The third phase was the full validation study, which solicited 182 in-service secondary physical educators to complete the 63-item survey (PEES-LPA) using online survey software distributed through state-level AHPERD email listserves. Finally, the fourth phase was the assessment of reliability and construct validity
Analysis/Results:
Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed a six-factor model that accounted for 67.8% of the total observed score variance (PAF extraction/Varimax rotation). Additionally, results demonstrated: (a) resulting factors showing simple structure that aligns with literature supporting the classification of lifetime physical activities (b) high factor scores on each factor (>.40) with no double loadings, (c) efficacy items relating to Net/Wall activities and Target activities loading together, and (d) internal consistency showed to be very high for both the full model (.95) and each individual factor (.92-.95). Results did also show moderately-high correlations between self-efficacy items relating to Feedback and Assessment, as well as Identifying and Presenting critical skill elements
Conclusions:
The PEES-LPA appears to be an appropriate instrument for measuring self-efficacy perceptions of physical educators, demonstrating evidence for both reliability and validity, though further revisions should be explored to help remove redundant items that may influence multicollinearity.
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